Reworked contracts for Christian McCaffrey, Shaq Thompson to save Panthers millions
Panthers coach Matt Rhule says Christian McCaffrey and Shaq Thompson have restructured their contracts to allow Carolina more flexibility ahead of free agency.
Free agency begins March 17.
The Panthers were expected to have about $18.7 million in salary cap space at the start of the new league year. That number will increase, though it is not yet clear how much.
Rhule declined to say how much the Panthers could save with the McCaffrey and Thompson contract tweaks, deferring that question to Panthers general manager Scott Fitterer, who also declined to say.
McCaffrey will reportedly have $7 million of his $8 million base salary converted to signing bonus, which would save the team $5.6 million in 2021, according to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo. That would add money to the back end of their contracts.
Thompson and McCaffrey had the team’s second- and fourth-largest cap numbers, respectively. Thompson was scheduled to make $14.2 million in 2021, while McCaffrey was scheduled to make $12.5 million.
“It’s not something we want to do long term, restructure or kick money down the road,” Fitterer said. “But this is one of those unique years where we’re trying to create money. We were tied against the cap, and the cap went down as well.”
McCaffrey and Thompson are the second and third players to have their contracts restructured this offseason. Last month, center Matt Paradis’ contract was restructured to create about $4.7 million in cap space.
The moves follows the Panthers’ decision to franchise tag right tackle Taylor Moton, and the NFL’s announcement that the salary cap will be $182.5 million in 2021.
The Panthers carried over $4.27 million in unused salary from 2020. They can spend up to $186.8 million in combined salaries for 2021 — money they’ll use on existing deals, free agent signings and those selected in the upcoming draft.
This story was originally published March 10, 2021 at 1:51 PM.
